With a commitment to investing in the latest technology and the best people in the industry, Borger Crane Hire and Rigging Services has become a powerhouse of the crane hire sector. With the third generation of Borgers now firmly established in the business, patriarch and founder Jon Borger takes us back to the beginning – explaining how the business has evolved and how it continues to meet the ever-changing requirements and demands of the construction industry.
“In the late 60’s I had just turned 16, and I went to Sydney looking for work. I started on a building site which had been excavated to about five floors below ground. Two weeks later, a massive piece of blue equipment was being erected, and this turned out to be a FAVCO 350HT and that’s when my interest in cranes began.
Jon was working for Robert Walls at the time, and he was quickly spotted as a likely dogman for the crane and he found himself helping his mate Jimmy. Back then the construction industry was not modulated, bricks for example were unloaded on the street from the brick truck and then loaded into a brick box and taken up to the brickies. Every task on the site involved manual labour.
“Working with Jimmy got me out of the hole and he taught me how to ride the hook, with him below and me up above him. After a few weeks, the site foreman said, “Hey, you better get down to the Department of Labour and Industry (DLI) office,”
“The Contemporary Museum of Art used to be the DLI office in those days, and I went in and got my permit. I then worked on the training for about four to six months, and enrolled at East Sydney Tech in Surrey Hills.
“I got my scaffolding ticket and riggers ticket and after six months, I took the test on the crane as a dogger and the following year I started at tech college. The course was for 18 weeks, two nights a week Mondays and Thursdays.
“I finished that course and I just worked around the city on the different sites and projects until I was about 28. In the late 70s early 80s there wasn’t much work around and that’s when I got a job with Wilson Mobile Cranes in Blacktown,” said Jon.
“To me, business is about survival, prosperity, and survival for your family. On the tower cranes we worked long hours but earned good money and I worked with people that wanted to work a lot of hours and make good money. I was working seven days a week, starting at five in the morning and finishing at six at seven o’clock at night,” said Jon.
Jon and his wife Barbara decided to put their roots down in Penrith.
“We knew a lot of people out that way, but I didn’t realise how bloody hot the summers are and how cold it gets in winter. We bought the home for $20,000 and only needed to borrow $8,000, we’d saved the rest. Penrith exploded and 10 years later when I wanted to borrow some money to buy another crane, the home was valued at around $50,000. We had plenty of equity,” said Jon.
It was May 1980 when Jon decided he was going to work for himself, and he started Borger Crane Hire and Rigging Services Pty Ltd. Blackwood Hodge was the distributor for P&H Cranes at the time and Jon worked with their finance team to secure a P&H T250 23t capacity hydraulic truck crane.
“I went to Blackwood Hodge to buy a 16t capacity P&H which was worth $82,000 and I walked out with a 23 tonner worth $137,500,” said Jon.
“We went all right for the first eight months and then we fell over and we had to renegotiate the lease which we did. By the time the new financing was agreed interest rates on the finance has gone from 13.4 per cent to 18.2 per cent and the value of the crane had increased to $142,000. We had no option but to renegotiate because we had our family home on the line,” he said.
Jon was happy with the new P&H T250 and he went on to find a niche for the next crane, a Kobelco T330. It could get onto sites where larger capacity cranes couldn’t fit and the lift charts were impressive. Jon worked with Wilsons as a sub-contractor until 1992, with other work on the side.
“I could see the potential and we made a bit of a killing, because there was only one in Sydney. And then a year or so later, Shawn started working in the business and after a little while it looked like that he was going to stay because he enjoyed the industry and work was starting to build up,” said Jon.
“We thought we’d buy another crane because Shawn was going to need income for his family and the same thing happened with my brother-in-law, who came down to Sydney to work with us. And we just get more opportunities.
“The work got busier, and we needed a 50 tonner which we bought, and the work rolled on from there. Shawn was on board and then Nathan joined and with my brother-in-law we had really good people around us,” said Jon.
The big change and opportunities came in 1992 when Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Committee announced that Sydney had been chosen to host the 2000 Olympic Games.
“Our lives changed with that announcement. You couldn’t get cranes because there was an 18 months to a two year wait; you couldn’t buy them and the amount of work was unbelievable. The Government started putting all the infrastructure in place for the Olympics like ANZ Stadium and the Penrith Whitewater Stadium.
“In the late 90’s Liebherr started seeing their way into Australia through Gerhard Baden and we could see the potential of these new all terrain cranes. There were a few around, Wilsons had a few Demags and all terrains were all the go,” said Jon.
“We negotiated a good deal to get into an 80t capacity Liebherr and there was no stopping us from there. Shawn was working closely with Gerd and Hermann from Active Crane Hire. Gerd managed the installations of the tower cranes, and he wasn’t happy with the service he was receiving from other crane companies. Nathan was driving the cranes and got on really well with Gerd, and we would have been putting up or taking four to five cranes some weeks. We now own 50 per cent of their business,” he said.
Other opportunities presented themselves to the Borgers. In the mid 1970’s Jon worked on the construction of the original Sydney Entertainment Centre which was a John Holland project.
“I worked on the project for some time, and I made friends with some of John Holland crew including a couple of Spanish lads. They went on to become Senior Managers at John Holland. They heard I’d started my own crane business and remembered me, and they started getting me back to help with projects. The first really large project we secured was the construction of the Lucas Heights Nuclear reactor, and the work flowed on from there.
“We were over there for a fair while and then we started with John Holland and then it’s just flow on and on and on, different jobs all over the place. Opportunities present themselves and you have to be able to see them firstly and then take advantage of them,” said Jon.
Jon is understandably very proud of the Borger business and delighted to see the 3rd generation of Borgers make their mark. But he says it hasn’t always been easy and sacrifices have been made along the way.
“I’m very proud of all that Barbara and myself, Shawn and his wife Leigh, Nathan and his wife Claire, have achieved with the business and in family life. In my opinion, Shawn and Nathan have always worked too hard but it’s impossible to stop when there’s so much momentum with a business.
“We’ve put resources in place now so they can get some time off and lately they’ve been starting to have more time for themselves and weekends off for a while now. But there are still times when they still have to go out and supervise jobs over a weekend or a night-time lift, so it’s not been easy,” said Jon.
“We are delighted to welcome the third generation into the business. Obviously, Billy, Tom and Sam, and the rest of the Grandchildren, have been around cranes their entire lives and we are pleased they have wanted to continue the family’s legacy. I can see they are making a positive contribution to the business.
“A family business like ours starts off with the first generation like Barbara and I. There’s always a desire just to make their life better. For the Borgers, the second generation then comes in and the business explodes because they’ve got a lot of knowledge which they’ve gained from their parents in the first place. They’ve also acquired a bit of wealth to give them a bit more purchasing power and the business systems are in place and to make things more streamlined.
“The first three grandchildren are already in the business, and there are another four grandchildren to come. They each have different skill sets and they are all very interested to be working in the business. They realise there are great opportunities with the family business,” said Jon.
“Nathan’s eldest son Jack is planning to go to university as he’s very bright. He must have got this from his mother, that’s what I tell him. He’s wanting to study mechanical and structural engineering and of course we’ve got engineers who have been working with us for the last decade. He wants to fit into the company doing something that he likes. One of our granddaughters, Ava, is very bright and she’s in some subjects two or three years ahead of her age group,” he said.
“Nathan’s son Harry is also clever, and I’d like to see him start in the business as a Dogman and crane operator before moving into management. Our youngest granddaughter is Mia and she recently turned 11. She wants to be the pay mistress just like her mother,” said Jon.
The Borger family have always encouraged each other to focus on family values, spend time together socially and prioritize ‘family time’ together.
“Barbara, Shawn, Nathan and I have always encouraged the family to stay close together socially. Whenever we can, we’ve celebrated birthdays and Christmases together and this has instilled a strong bond throughout the generations. It’s lovely to see the third generation get along perfectly at work but also at home.
“We’re always looking at ways to keep the family bond tight and last year we went to Germany for bauma and to visit the Liebherr factory. Nathan and Harry weren’t there because Harry was competing in the World Wake Boarding Championships in Thailand.
“So as far as the third generation is concerned, if they decide to go into the family business we will be delighted. I just hope they have the same passion and work ethics that Shawn and Nathan brought.
“They are showing the next four how its done, I truly believe no matter what business you are in and whatever you do in life, if you approach it with passion, you’ll succeed.
“We’ve attracted good people to the business and without them we wouldn’t be where we are today. We’re also prepared to invest in the very latest technology and this attracts good people. In Germany, we saw a couple of our latest acquisitions which will be arriving later in the year, which is always exciting for everyone,” said Jon.